Streaming players is huge in fantasy baseball. In fact, it’s probably bigger in baseball than in any other sport. Baseball is such a long season and has so many games that you can really find ways to gain advantages over your opponents – one of those ways is through effective streaming! You can stream both pitching and hitting in a variety of different ways, so let’s dive in!

 

Streaming Hitters

Hot Hitters

This is one that not enough people take advantage of or implement correctly. Hot and cold streaks are a part of every sport but, honestly, I think they are bigger in baseball than anything else. When a guy gets locked in, he can go on an incredible run. For example, let’s look at Harrison Bader in 2021 when he had multiple streaks. Through July 1st, he was hitting .208 with four home runs – then he got hot and hit .382 with five home runs and 17 RBI over a 21-game span. If you picked him up after a week of good production (six games into his streak), you would have benefitted from a 15-game stretch in which he hit .442 with three home runs. Talk about fantasy production! 

On the flip side of this, though, is willing to cut bait when the streak comes to an end when it comes to those fringe fantasy players like Bader last season. That doesn’t mean one or two bad games, but more so if it turns into a five-game stretch. That probably means the hot streak is over and thus there's no need to continue to hold on. This, of course, also depends on the league size, roster settings, etc. Bader was consistently worth rostering in 15-team leagues, but he was more someone to just roster during the hot streaks in 10-team leagues. It is crucial to consistently monitor steaks (both hot and cold) in baseball. 

Good Matchups Against Bad Pitchers

This one is a bit obvious from a DFS perspective, but not as commonly used in seasonal formats. However, a hitter can have a string of good matchups and make them worth streaming. Last season, the Orioles, D-backs, and Pirates all had team ERA’s north of 5.00 and had no pitchers on their staffs that performed well – which means series against those teams could prove to be profitable streams. This could especially be true if a team has back-to-back series against teams with bad team ERA’s. 

For example, a team could play in Baltimore and then play in Pittsburgh (due to proximity of locations) and that would have given you six or seven straight games against bad pitching staffs. Streaming against bad pitchers can be utilized even further in leagues where you can make a higher amount of moves per week or on the year. Take advantage of streaming against bad pitching and take advantage of whatever your league settings are! 

Coors Field or Great American Ballpark Trips

Ballparks are huge when it comes to hitting production, and it’s not something that enough people utilize when it comes to streaming hitters in fantasy. Park factors can vary a bit from year to year, so it’s something to keep close tabs on during the season. Still, two parks that are always near the top of offensive production are Coors Field (home of the Rockies) and Great American Ballpark (home of the Reds). High-scoring games consistently take place at these two fields and it makes streaming opposing hitters a valuable move. 

If you see a player taking a four-game or even three-game trip to one of these fields, there is a pretty strong chance that they will provide strong fantasy stats during that series. It can be even better when they have a trip combined with another series before or after that is also in an offensive ballpark. This can also work for Rockies or Reds players who have a long home-stand stretch in which they play two or three straight series at home. Take advantage of scheduling and take advantage of offensive ballparks, you won’t regret it.

 

Streaming Pitchers

There are basically two main concepts to streaming pitchers, and both are pretty obvious. 

Good Matchups Against Bad Offenses and/or Cold Offenses

This is another one that is pretty obvious and used frequently. If you saw a halfway decent pitcher on the wire and he was facing the Pirates (3.76 runs per game – dead last) or Marlins (3.85 runs per game – second worst), it made him a solid streaming option last season. Does it always work out? No, but a lot of fantasy is playing the odds and the odds were in the pitchers' favor when facing those teams. Those two teams once again look like poor offenses heading into 2022, but it will be important to keep tabs on which teams are scoring and how much once the season officially kicks off.

We also have the ability to stream against cold offenses. I put it in the same category because the concept is the same: getting a pitcher against an offense that he should be able to pitch well against. Cold offenses could also be bad offenses, but sometimes even good hitting teams are just ice-cold at the plate. As I stated earlier, streaks are a huge part of baseball and teams do slump. You can check how teams are scoring over the last week or two and see if they are slumping a bit and, if they are, you can take advantage of streaming against them. 

Two-Start Pitchers

This is a commonly used strategy in a lot of leagues, especially weekly formats or ones that have only a small number of weekly moves. You can maximize your totals for the week by streaming a pitcher who has two starts on tap. This can especially be great if he has two good matchups or if you have another borderline starter who has just one tough matchup that week. 

This is one strategy that people need to be more careful with than they are, though. Just because a guy has two starts on tap doesn’t necessarily mean it’s worth streaming him. Getting two bad starts out of a pitcher is not going to do you any good –  regardless of format – and especially not in leagues where you have a max number of moves for the season, or a max number of innings pitched for the season. People who play in 8-team and 10-team leagues can utilize this strategy of streaming far better than those in 15-team leagues or bigger. That may sound obvious, but most of the other streaming strategies can be utilized in just about any league size effectively.